I suggest if you want to do 4K editing make sure you have as many cores as possible. Ryzen CPU’s are great for rendering, timeline scrubbing, etc. Also make sure you have a GPU with dedicated RAM. I went with an ASUS Zenbook OLED. It’s a Ryzen 7 5800H, GeForce RTX 3050 Ti, 16gb of Ram, 1tb ssd. It’s been a beast for a non gaming laptop. I can run a Divinci Resolve timeline full of 4k clips with ZERO lag. Just as long as you use proxy media. Im upgrading to a larger ssd soon to handle all the proxy storage.

I was dead set on a Macbook with the M1 for a while. Wanted to use Final Cut, etc. But I’m glad I went with this. Much more customization within Windows, and a very well built machine for much less money. Plus Divinci is free unless you need more color grading options. I have yet to need the paid version.

If you decide for sure on a Macbook Pro regardless of what year I’d definitely choose the M1 over anything prior and try to find one with 10 cores. 8 is fine but 10 will make 4K a breeze. Also make sure it’s not a laptop with integrated graphics. Your rendering will be slow compared to having a dedicated gpu with ram. And to finish yes Air’s are thinner so less space for more powerful internals and worse airflow. So I’d steer way clear of one for video editing. Especially if you go with Divinci cause it’s a cpu HOG. Lol

Good Luck. Hope that helped a little.

I don’t know, as I’m on PC. I just came here to say that if for whatever reason you do end up on PC, there’s a video editor that’s like iMovie for Windows that you might like called Movavi. Anyway, good luck, OP.

Can I ask a similar question but flex it in a few slightly different ways? Me and my girlfriend are starting an initiative to record and vlog live music and surrounding content in off the beaten track countries like Cuba and Senega. We’re recording on iPhones at 4K and producing videos at 10:80 P and so far that’s been going really well but it does get frustrating working in places with poor connectivity and so forth.  so I’ve been doing a bit of thinking about the best compute platform for editing and, as well I was trying to avoid facilities like iCloud that can use bandwidth as if it was free, Im I’m thinking about how a laptop might fit in and if so I want something which is adequately performant rather than Top end but also that I don’t want it to be very heavy to carry around and I don’t want it to be excessively stealable. It’s a hobby And. Risk of theft is relatively high.so not ludicrously expensive.  I’d also quite like to use it as a replacement for my aging  desktop and I do do a little bit of AAA gaming 

So I’m looking for suggestions about how you would specify a Sensible mid tier computer balancing those somewhat conflicting demands?  Are any brands and models pitched well against that type of thing? I guess I’d be up for spending $1500 or so but to be honest don’t really understand where I’d feel the benefit over buying something at $1000 or indeed what $2000 would improve. 

Fully loaded macbook.

MacBook Pro.

MacBook Pros tend to be better optimized for things like video editing since people don't use them to game. Gaming tends to put a lot more emphasis on graphics cards whereas editing (while still using a graphics card) often puts emphasis on the processor more than gaming does. Both are important for both but there tends to be a shifted priority there.

That said, MBPs are expensive, so I totally get the desire to not go with one. You can definitely get a laptop for editing that's not Apple and it'll be fine, but I'd look into reviews for different processors and graphics cards for editing and factor that into which laptop you want to get. Just getting a laptop branded for "gaming" will often mean that priority of GPU over CPU and also tends to have markup because it calls out gaming so that a grandma or parent can buy it for their kid.

I do a lot of gaming as well as editing and I spent a lot on my new desktop that runs premiere like a dream but also games, but I also went for the new top of the line Intel CPU as well as a GeForce 4080 Super graphics card and 64GB of RAM. That Desktop was less money than the middle option of M4 Pro MacBook Pros and outperforms it, but it's also not a laptop. I'm not too familiar with the PC laptops out there, though I am quite familiar with Apple and use a MacBook Pro as well for my full time gig and it works very well even though it's around 4 years old, though still not comparable to my new desktop.

Generally speaking, you can get a better computer for the same or cheaper than the price of any Apple computer. But Apple is a very reliable brand that works really well for what they do and there's a lot of value in that at times, it's just a question of if you're willing to pay for that or not.

M2 Max MacBook Pro is probably the best laptop.

M1/M2 14” Macbook Pro. Good screen, and light enough to carry around.

Worth reading this, but the M2 Macbook Pro

https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-15-inch-laptops-for-photo-and-video-editing/

Your budget is really small if $1K. Would probably go used and an older MacBook

If you’re majoring in video editing and want this to be your career this is probably something you want to invest in.

I own an XPS and will always recommend Macbook if the use is primarily video editing

Edit: you can get far on an older model if you’re willing to follow a professional workflow and edit in an optimal codec (eg ProRes 422 instead of H.264/65), may just need to invest in a great external SSD

If you have the budget the answer is easily a m1/m2 macbook.

“What’s the best?”

and also

“My budget is under $1k”

Get a M4 series MacBook Pro depending on which one you can afford

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Hey! First off — no need to apologize, long laptop lists are just modern-day puzzles 😅 and I love solving them.

For your mix of photo/video editing plus 3D printing software, you're gonna want decent CPU + GPU power and preferably 16GB RAM minimum. From that list, I'd say the MSI Katana A17 or MSI Thin A15 are your best bets — they tend to pack dedicated GPUs, which Premiere Pro and 3D slicers will definitely appreciate. The others lean more toward light office work (a.k.a. the "Chrome + 20 tabs" lifestyle).

I’ve also put together a page with laptop picks and tips based on real use-cases like yours — all work-from-home and creative-task friendly:
👉 https://eternaltouristreviews.blogspot.com/2025/03/best-laptop-for-gaming-students-and.html

Hope that helps! Let me know if you want a breakdown between those two MSI models — I’m here for it (and your future beautifully rendered 3D prints). 🖨️✨

desktop.... would be better for professional work...

You have one of those jobs... that can use maximum ram ... ( like 128gb )
and scratch SSD, and fastest video card you can get.. in your budget.

gaming laptop will do.. but you are paying for the form factors.

I’ve got a windows machine and a macOS machine.

Get the MacBook Pro with an „M“ processor. They work really efficiently. Even working without plugged in is no problem. And the display ist really nice. It a perfect machine for creative work.

But if you plan to game or use software like cad. Then it’s not your machine, keep that in mind.

M4 Pro MacBook Pro. With a lot of RAM.

Get a MacBook Pro. Or, if it'll stay at your desk, and money isn't too big a deal, get a Mac Studio.

MacBook Pro with an M1 or higher is going to be a good choice. those laptops are purpose-built for creative software and sport the highest battery life currently available along with other ARM platform laptops.

otherwise get an laptop with an 8gb VRAM gpu, preferably 32gb of RAM or higher, however much storage you want depending on if you use cloud services, and probably a tier 7 processor from Intel or AMD (or tier 9). as for the screen, 60hz is fine as most of the time the footage you’re working with will be output at 60fps or less. however most laptops of this tier are starting to include 90hz or 120hz displays. as for LCD versus OLED, I typically recommend LCD for extended work sessions due to the slight risk of burn-in with OLED screens, however if the work you do is color-sensitive, then an OLED will have the best picture available.

once again, if you go with a MacBook Pro, they use a 120hz VRR Mini-LED (Retina) display that looks almost on-par with OLED screens, preventing the risk of burn-in, which is another reason MacBooks are good for creative software.

Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 8.

Modern Intel CPU with igpu is the only choice for PC

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/What-H-264-and-H-265-Hardware-Decoding-is-Supported-in-Premiere-Pro-2120/

Mac m1\2 has excellent hardware acceleration too

Never I say never buy a mac if you are going to edit on it, I owned a 2020 Mac Pro m1 , normal edits works great but when you go into hardcore edits and use 3d the mac is gonna slow down , and the most important part, you need a hell, lot of storage to edit so , instead go with a pc if you are not travelling or a windows laptop under your budget

Macbook is currently just more stable for video editing and an overall better experience, even though I prefer windows for everything currently

Second hand Macbook Pro with M chip is the best bang for your buck

Currently using Mac m1 max 32gb/1tb ( bought it few years ago for 1650€). works like butter anything i throw at it, i edit off t7 SSDs. Mainly using Premiere/AE for edit and vfx, davinci for grading. If you are able to find used newer mac (m3/m4 pro) or older used (m1/m2 max) - these machines should still be good for the future. As for Windows machines - can't recommend really, as in my experience, built PC, upgraded its parts and mac still performed wayyyy better

Asus rog or lenovo legion with nvidea card. You can max your ram and ssd later.

Apple silicon Macbooks would be your best bet. I’ve used intel 11th gen laptops and they sometimes stutter when transition effects are added. Get anything that matches your budget, refurbs are good to save money as well.

HP Z-Book with nvidia graphics. spec out your RAM to the max and add in SSD - which you can DIY later. all on your budget....

Just make sure that you have at least 8GB of RAM. People get really specific about what you need, but I do a lot of editing on my MacBook Air. It's not a professional-level television project, but it works fine for social media and YouTube videos.

If you plan on using 1080p/2.7K content, an Macbook with the M1 chip would be pretty decent. I daily an Macbook Air with M1, 8GB unified memory for the last 4 years, I see no reason why should I change it. It’s an amazing machine. As of low budget, I would consider getting it getting on ebay or any other marketplace you could find. Should be ~550€

Not any kind of expert, so commenting to also hear other's thoughts... A good GPU is obviously important, and lots of RAM is needed for raw video editing, like 32 or even 64 if you can swing it.

One thing I found is that a lot of companies sell intel "F" chips and it seems to not be the best choice for video work. My build has an "i7-11700KF" - the K means it's unlocked for overclocking, great, but more importantly the F means is doesn't have an iGPU. This is basically a non-issue for gamers and such because they have a 5080 or something that does the graphics work, but for video editing a iGPU is super useful because of quick sync, basically it can decode stuff like h264 or HVEC on the fly. So even though my machine is a gaming beast, it struggles with LOG 264 footage, so I have to make proxies or transcode for a buttery edit... I bought a new PC with an i9 and built in iGPU (aka no F in the name) so I am hoping when that arrives it will cut through my raw footage with ease.